Wayfaring Stranger
by Spacer Paste
Summary: Confused and heartbroken after Elder Maxson's betrayal Paladin Danse flees the Commonwealth. Leaving everything behind, including his friend Nathan, Danse wanders until he eventually crosses the Blue Ridge Mountains into Appalachia. With the news that Danse is a synth and so much unsaid between them, SS Paladin Nathan tracks Danse to Virginia. Crossover story of FO 4 & FO 76.


TITLE: Wayfaring Stranger

CHAPTER: Prologue

* * *

"I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger

Traveling through this world below

There is no sickness, no toil, nor danger

In that bright land to which I go."

Johnny Cash, _Wayfaring Stranger_

* * *

Thick with verdant poison the miasma of a radiation storm that followed him from the airport cast lurid shadows against the bunker wall. The radiation blurred the digital readout, burned his skin, and closed his eyes. With the night closing in and his breath reduced to pants, he forced his shaking hands to try again. The computer refused to yield. How many computers has he hacked? Possibly hundreds. What if he's too late? What if Danse isn't here? Haylen could only guess this is where he might be. If Danse wasn't here...

_Never should have left him alone in the Glowing Sea. Whatever happened to make Danse run is my fault. Should have stayed with him. Protected him from the terrible news. If I'd stayed by his side, we could have faced Maxson together._

The stench of death assaulted Paladin Nathan when the bunker door finally swung open. The sickly-sweet scent clawed its way through the combat helmet filter and closed his throat. He staggered against twisting nausea until a flash of laser fire struck him in the chest, burning into the leather chest piece of his armor. Clawing the super sledge off his back, Nathan swung at protectron. The force of the blow chewed into the ligaments of his shoulders. The thing fell to pieces at his feet. He bit down on the cry of pain and lunged at the elevator.

_Why the fuck didn't they put stairs in these things? What if Danse was trapped down here? Lost in the dark and slowly starving._

Nathan shouted for his friend before the elevator doors opened. Another protectron blocked his way. The slick sweat of adrenalin-fueled his rage and another robot fell to the filthy concrete floor. A turret suffered the same fate before it could fire a shot.

"Danse!" Nathan shouted into the gloom. "Answer me, damn you. Are you here?"

A broken wall lured him into a passageway cut into the bedrock. He stumbled through the opening his feet and hands prickling as fear sent his blood to protect his organs. He hadn't experienced this level of fear since Anchorage. A shallow pool of water and a rotting Yao guai carcass met him inside. Thick with old blood and feces, the stench turned his gut inside out. His hands clenched his knees Nathan puked, wretching until nothing was left.

The sound of a radio playing pulled his head up and stumbled into the next room.

"Danse?" His soldier's eyes scanned the room, taking in every detail. Two empty whiskey bottles lay on their sides next to a laser rifle. Every piece of furniture and equipment was smashed and piled up at one end of the room. A faded orange flight suit lay discarded in the dust. On a filthy bank of computers, Nathan noticed two smashed boxes of mentats and a holotape.

Blinking away the sting of moisture in his eyes, Nathan loaded the holotape.

"As the minute's tick by and I stare at the walls of this godforsaken place, I'm still trying to cope with the reality that I am a living lie. My identity as Paladin Danse is nothing but a memory now. Everything I held dear, everything I've ever believed in, is completely gone. I've spent far too long wondering why this happened to me, but the truth is, it doesn't matter. I am a synth... which means I am a freak of nature, a perversion of science, and an example of where mankind has gone wrong. For the benefit of humanity, I need to die. Not because I'm cowardly or despondent, but because it's the human thing to do. This is Danse, former Paladin of the Brotherhood of Steel signing off."

Paladin Nathan groaned an inarticulate sound of sorrow as another link to sanity knocked him off his feet to the littered floor.

* * *

Appalachia

"Far too many times I've held it in  
Appalachian rage in the northbound wind  
My mind is growing strong but my body's wearing thin  
And I can't turn this thing around

Oh, but you might see it every now and then  
Appalachian sorrow running down my skin  
'Cause I'm the man that borrows from the man that lives  
And I will always let him know  
And every day I try to live it down

And when they lay my body in the green green grass  
I will whisper quiet secrets to the animals that pass  
Bout the times I knew I swore I was never coming back  
But I lied  
I am Appalachia

Wake up to find that I've outgrown my friends  
And our seeds grew side by side but my roots grew thin  
Then one day I blew away in Autumn's restless wind  
And she has never set me down

Oh, alone I wing my way through winter storms  
Spring brought new life that storm down its door  
There was blood on my mama's knees from talking to the Lord  
And he won't let me wash it out  
And every day I try to live it down

And when they lay my body in the green green grass  
I will whisper quiet secrets to the animals that pass  
Bout the times I walked away about the time that I ran back  
'Cause I lied  
I am Appalachia

And I am Appalachia running through the trees  
With my head above the clouds and all the ground beneath my feet  
Oh, at times I know I swore that I would never love these things  
But I lied

And when they lay my body in the green green grass  
I will whisper quiet secrets to the animals that pass  
Bout the times I knew I swore I was never coming back  
But I lied 'cause inside  
Yes I lied 'cause inside  
I am Appalachia"

Josiah Leming, _Appalachia_ _(On the Back Porch)_ Josiah and the Bonnevilles


End file.
